F1 | Ferrari, Charles Leclerc: “I can't hide my disappointment”

What a disaster for Charles Leclerc. There will certainly be a lot of talking at the end of the race between engineers, strategists, drivers and team principals at Ferrari. Carlos Sainz starts from pole and loses position to Verstappen, while Leclerc is overtaken by Hamilton. The accident on the first lap rewinds the tape, bringing everyone back to the starting positions: this time the Ferraris attack, with Leclerc suffering damage to the front wing, losing the right endplate. Despite this, his times did not worsen and with the stops of the two Red Bulls he moved up to second position. From here the radio communications begin with the wall: Charles asks his engineers to be able to pass Carlos, but the team is not convinced and asks the Spaniard to respect the targets. The pace of the Monegasque is clearly faster, despite the damage, and the stops which give the lead to Lewis Hamilton, but his requests are only accepted on the thirty-first lap, when it is already too late. The wall gives the "free to fight", but the two waste time. At the Safety Car, then, on lap thirty-nine, Ferrari chooses to call only Sainz back to the pits, who is on the soft tires like all those behind him, while Leclerc remains alone on the track with the hard tires now too worn. The wall asks Sainz to leave space between him and the Monegasque, but the Spaniard is – understandably – hungry for victory. “You can't do this to me, please”, he says on the radio, and in fact he immediately overtakes his teammate on the restart, leaving him to be fed to Perez and Hamilton and taking his first career victory. Leclerc is incredibly fourth and off the podium, in a race where Ferrari's strategy once again appears incomprehensible: Verstappen is plagued by problems and slips to eighth position, and the Maranello team once again fails to impose itself and does not safeguard its driver fighting for the world championship. Charles' disappointment after the race was palpable.

"I don't know if we could have done it differently. Really, it's another race where the final result is missing, I did everything and my defense at the end proves it, I don't know how much more we could have done, but I was first on the Safety Car, we did the split, the car Safety takes the back and the one in front holds the position, but for me it wasn't the right decision” explained the Monegasque at the end of the race.

"I'm not anyone to ask Ferrari for clarification, but obviously it was a frustrating race and I have the impression of having lost time in my personal race, especially in the first stints, but I don't have the overall image of the race – continues Charles – having said that, today Carlos won his first race and I don't want to focus on my disappointment, but on his first victory which is a special moment, but I can't hide my disappointment. We definitely missed a great opportunity for the world rankings.".